CATana

This Zenodo archive holds a stable reference to the CATana tool suite, which is otherwise available at: https://open.liskra.org/git/repo/catana/catana.git (commit c5a91534a254d2f666911e37cf9dbe61f8089f90)

CATana is a suite of software tools designed for exploration and experimentation with the SIM AT interface that allows SIM cards to run AT commands on the terminal.

Our paper at USENIX WOOT 2026 describes our findings, the design, implementation, vulnerabilities we discovered, and our disclosures aiming to mitigate the risks of the SIM AT in current and future mobile devices.

Tool Suite

CATtty: Run a software SIM on the host and a SIMtrace connected to your target. This CLI tool exposes a shell-like interface that takes AT commands as input and dispatches them to the target through the SIM interface.

CATlet: Install an applet onto a physical programmable SIM card and insert it into the target. Connect the host to an auxiliary AT interface of the same target and use the shell-like interface to submit AT commands that will be delivered to the applet on the SIM, and dispatched to the terminal. The host app will issue an additional request to fetch the response from the applet, allowing for insight into what happened.

CATauto: Automate CATtty and run thousands of AT commands while collecting the results for later analysis.

CATview: Read a CATauto output file and produce a human-readable JSON summary of the results for later processing or direct analysis.

Installation

Project needs to be cloned recursively to clone all of the dependencies! Clone with `git clone --recurse-submodules <url>` or if already cloned, run: `git submodule update --init --recursive`.

Navigate to the dedicated tool directories for specific installation and usage instructions.

Citing This Work

If you are using CATana in an academic paper, please reference our USENIX WOOT 2026 paper:

@inproceedings{lisowski-catana-2026,
  title = {{CATana: On the Dangers of SIM-Originating AT Commands}},
  shorttitle = {{CATana}},
  booktitle = {{USENIX WOOT Conference on Offensive Technologies}},
  author = {Tomasz Piotr Lisowski and Kristian Covic and Marius Muench},
  year = {2026}
}